_Inter-phalangeal Dislocation._--The second and the ungual phalanges may be displaced backwards, forwards, or to the side. The clinical features are characteristic, and the diagnosis, as well as reduction, is easy. These dislocations are frequently the result of machinery accidents, and being compound and difficult to render aseptic, often necessitate amputation. _Persistent flexion of the terminal phalanx_ of the thumb or fingers (_drop_ or _mallet finger_) may result from violence applied to the end of the digit when in the extended position--as, for example, in attempting to catch a cricket-ball. The terminal phalanx is flexed towards the palm, and the patient is unable to extend it voluntarily. A palmar splint is applied securing extension of the distal joint for three or four weeks. If the deformity has been allowed to occur it can only be corrected by an open operation, suturing or tightening the extensor tendon at its insertion into the base of the terminal phalanx. CHAPTER VI INJURIES IN THE REGION OF THE PELVIS, HIP-JOINT, AND THIGH FRACTURES OF PELVIS: _Varieties_--INJURIES IN REGION OF HIP: Surgical anatomy; _Fracture of head of femur_; _Fracture of neck of femur_; _Fracture below lesser trochanter_--DISLOCATION OF HIP: _Varieties_--Sprains--Contusions--FRACTURE OF SHAFT OF FEMUR. FRACTURE OF THE PELVIS For descriptive as well as for practical purposes, it is useful to divide fractures of the pelvis into those that involve the integrity of the pelvic girdle as a whole, and those confined to individual bones. In all, the prognosis depends upon the severity of the visceral lesions which so frequently complicate these injuries, rather than upon the fractures themselves. #Fractures implicating the pelvic girdle as a whole# usually result from severe crushing forms of violence, such as the fall of a mass of coal or a pile of timber, or the passage of a heavy wheel over the pelvis. The force may act in the transverse axis of the pelvis, or in its antero-posterior axis. The pelvic viscera may be lacerated by the tearing asunder of the bones, or perforated by sharp fragments, or they may be ruptured by the same violence as that causing the fracture. As a rule, more than one part of the pelvis is broken, the situation of the lesions varying in different cases.